Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
VII THE COVENANT CEREMONY (Deuteronomy 26:16 to Deuteronomy 27:26).
The covenant having been fully outlined and declared, and the tribute having been offered, the covenant ceremony can now be prepared for.
Moses' Final Summing Up .
Moses now closes his speech with a final exhortation. It had begun in Deuteronomy 5 with the reproclamation of the initial covenant, to be followed with detailed regulations, in a similar way to Exodus 20:1 to Exodus 23:33. But as we have seen this had been made by the writer into a larger covenant form commencing at Deuteronomy 1:1. It will now be followed by the solemn recording of the covenant in the presence of witnesses (Deuteronomy 27:2) and then the blessings and cursings (Deuteronomy 27:11 to Deuteronomy 28:68), closing with the colophon in Deuteronomy 29:1 which was the end of the initial covenant record.
Analysis
a This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul' (Deuteronomy 26:16).
b You have avouched Yahweh this day to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways, and keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His ordinances, and listen to His voice (Deuteronomy 26:17).
b And Yahweh has avouched you this day to be a people for his own possession, as He has promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments, and to make you high above all nations that He has made, ‘in praise, and in name, and in honour' (Deuteronomy 26:18 a).
b And that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as He has spoken (Deuteronomy 26:19 b).
Note that in ‘a' the command is to be wholehearted in obeying the covenant, and in the parallel this will man that they are a holy people to Yahweh their God, as He has said that they will be. In ‘b' the people have avouched Yahweh to be their God and in the parallel Yahweh has avouched that they will be His people. Both include their keeping of His commandments.
‘ This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul.'
On this solemn day all these commands, ‘the statutes and ordinances', had been given to them through him by Yahweh. This phrase covered all aspects of Yahweh's requirements. They were to keep them in their hearts and minds, and do them with all their heart and soul. This was to be their commitment to Yahweh, so that they may be revealed as His true people. But this had to include the Law that lay behind his speech in order for it to make sense.
Compare Deuteronomy 5:1 and Deuteronomy 12:1, the first of which introduces the proclamation of the covenant, and the second the commencement of the detailed regulations. This is the covenant within the covenant. But the final purpose of the covenant was an obedient people.
When we think of salvation as simply a means by which God gets us to Heaven we are like Israel when it saw the covenant as making them supreme. We are like children to whom the present glitter is everything. But as with His covenant, the purpose of His salvation is more than that. It is that we might be a holy people, walking in the Lord, whether on earth or in Heaven. That should be our delight, that we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2), that we should walk as children of light. To get to Heaven yes, but to get there as a holy people.
‘ You have avouched Yahweh this day to be your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice,'
Here the covenant oaths are being exchanged, following the pattern of treaties between great overlords and their subject people. Each make their avowal to the other in threefold terms. He points out that by their presence and response they had this day avouched for themselves that Yahweh was their God, and that they would walk in His ways.
“Walking” is a common description of doing God's will and pleasure (Deuteronomy 5:33; Deuteronomy 8:6; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:22; Deuteronomy 13:4; Deuteronomy 19:9; Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9; Genesis 17:1; Genesis 24:40; Genesis 48:15; Exodus 18:20; Leviticus 18:4; Leviticus 26:3). It is the opposite of ‘walking contrary to Him' (Leviticus 26:21). They had declared that they would ‘keep His statutes and His commandments and His ordinances' (compare here Deuteronomy 5:27; Exodus 24:3). They had declared that they would listen when He spoke.
‘ And Yahweh has avouched you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments, and to make you high above all nations that he has made, ‘in praise, and in name, and in honour', and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.'
And Yahweh in His turn has avouched them as His true people, as His own treasured possession (compare Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 28:9; Exodus 19:5), as a holy people, totally set apart to Him, just as He had promised. He had further avouched them as those who must keep all His commandments. Here we have the picture of the true people of God, first chosen and made precious, and then in response required to walk in obedience.
The result will be that He will raise them high above all nations that He has made, ‘high in praise and name and honour' (compare Jeremiah 13:11; Jeremiah 33:9, where it was the direct result of His saving work). But this was so that they would be revealed as a holy people to Yahweh their God in accordance with His words, truly set apart for Him, and revealing His essential holiness in their lives. We all want the praise, the name and the honour. What is often not so attractive is being a people who deserve it when it requires something from us.
They would ever delight in the fact that Yahweh had chosen them. They would rejoice at the thought of being raised high above all. What they found more difficult, and in the end refused, was to respond by walking in His ways and doing only His will. In other words for many of them their belief was external. It was about their own importance. It was not a living belief in the living God which had responded to Him in order to please Him and do His will. The result would be that they would lose it all. For trust and obedience are two side of the one response and must go together.